Social Media Trends for 2015

20 Jan 2015

The world of social media is a fast-paced environment seeded with surprising and continual transformations and innovations. Curious what 2015 might bring for social media marketing? Globe One Digital’s social team presents 8 marketing trends for this year:

#1: Video, as the first choice for content

In August 2014, Facebook surpassed YouTube for the first time in the number of video views via desktop, though YouTube maintains more views across all devices. The simple take-home message? Stay on top of video, the dynamic of video looks like a clear strategy priority looking at user preference.

#2: More social conversions

Using social media as a direct sales tool has always been top of the list. Up to this point, marketers have promoted brands via social media by driving more traffic to the websites and using call-to-actions. While simple enough to implement, this strategy imposes a number of tasks from the potential consumer. The goal for this year is to make it as simple as it gets. Mobile click-to-call, purchasing via tweets, and/or special registrations are strong alternatives for driving social users into buying services and products. This procedure takes advantage of emergent technologies, themselves harnessed by social media platforms or via third-parties. Simplifying the tasks between interest to action inevitably improves social media conversion rates and offers new opportunities for brands.

#3: Technology transform marketing

Hardware design or software innovation? From Google’s collaboration with NASA to build the most powerful piece of hardware on the planet, to augmented reality mobile applications, technology clearly sets the standards. Adding real – time visual reality elements catapults engagement – keep your eyes on the latest developments in these exciting areas and don’t be shy to recognize opportunity.

#4: Paid Media Becomes Necessary

In 2014, Facebook announced a decrease in the amount of promotional content coming from brand pages, pushing even small businesses to social media advertising campaigns. Since Facebook won’t allow brands to fully show their content for free, paid media campaigns look to be the prima facie way to get audience attention, and you can be sure other networks won’t be far behind. Let’s face it, the liking period is simply over. Brands need to collaborate with digital agencies to get the most out of their reach and select the right segmentation by optimizing their campaigns.

#5: Personal communication

Uploading funky posts is just not enough! Communicating with your fans is an imperative to build a mutual relationship based on trust. The demand for personal interaction with fans and followers is skyrocketing, and if those who get it right early on will get the bests of both worlds: fans get to know the people behind the brand, and businesses get a chance for invaluable feedback from real people in real time.

#6: More social networks will offer said visibility

Facebook’s model for displaying information to users is often, and will be, emulated by other social networks who will soon start filtering the posts your friends and/or followers see. Ever wonder why engagement decreases? In order to improve user experience and maintain high engagement rate, brands will not only have to use paid media, they will have to regularly share high-quality content. Businesses looking to maximize the impact of their social media presence are well advised to keep this in mind.

#7: Integrated marketing

We are way past the era of simple Facebook and/or Twitter. Integrated marketing means that sharing your Facebook image posts on Twitter can add significant value to that Facebook post. This cross-social strategy requires marketers to come up with new ways to integrate networks. A strategic digital plan, focused on improving reach and driving engagement across social media channels, will be crucial.

#8: Visual & more…visual

Images and videos will lead this year. Following Pinterest and Instagram, which have shot through the roof in the last years, videos are the new norm on Facebook too. Mobile apps for photo editing have released the power of visuals, and even small business can create fascinating images. Especially for video, people tend to find spontaneous shots created on smartphones more fun and engaging, and brands should use that to save on cost. However, audiences nowadays expect quality, so designers and developers will definitely have their work cut out for them, daily if not hourly.